Monday Night Links: On-Vacation Edition
Posted by kj on Monday, October 27th, 2008
- Michigan State was pegged as the #2 team in the conference going into this season by the Big Ten media. No complaints here: Purdue had a better conference record than us last year and returns all their starters. Raymar Morgan is a preseason all-Big Ten pick. Kalin Lucas’s chances of making the postseason version of the team may be just as good; there’s not a pure point guard on the preseason all-conference team (Moore/Harris/Hummel/Morgan/Landry).
- There’s also an unofficial media poll conducted on Big Ten media day that goes past just the first three spots. The media’s predicted order of finish looks pretty solid:
1. Purdue (10) 160
2. Michigan State (5) 154
3. Wisconsin 133
4. Ohio State 121
5. Minnesota 90
6. Illinois 85
7. Penn State 79
8. Michigan 67
t9. Iowa 39
t9. Northwestern 39
11. Indiana 23
- The Big Ten Geeks have supplied a nice fix of MSU tempo-free data in my absence. This is their response to my response to a recent post they did on whether Izzo should use a 10-11 man rotation. See the comments section for my response to their response to my response.
- Four factor graphs!
- Steve Smith will serve as the color guy for some BTN games this season.
- Plus we get the always-excitable Gus Johnson.
- The Green-White basketball scrimmage will be this Saturday following the football game vs. Wisconsin. Any volunteers to serve as the official Spartans Weblog correspondent?
Filed in links4 responses so far
4 Responses to “Monday Night Links: On-Vacation Edition”
huberton 28 Oct 2008 at 9:42 am 1two comments that have not been made yet about why Izzo always says he wants the Spartans to run. First, I think it is in large part about managing outside reputation. On the one hand, it’s more attractive to recruits, particularly the more athletic ones. Izzo wants the buzz to be that playing for him is going to be fun, to undemrine the other perception that he is a control freak whose offense is a long list of set plays.
Second, the ambition to run is inherently linked to the program’s rebounding philosophy. You can’t send wing players screaming down the line every possession unless you are dominating the boards, and the ability to run the break is one very good reason to focus on defenseive rebouding. It’s easily forgotten that there’s a useful synnergy between running and rebounding (this was the old Celtics philosophy on the great Bill Russel Teams). The other team can’t send five guys to the boards if they think they’re going to get beat on a fast break. With the great final four MSU teams, the other team had to pick its poison — either allow MSU to absolutely dominate the boards, or allow it to get a lot of points off of demoralizing fast breaks. When MSU has been at its best, other teams slowed down the spartans by conceding board dominance. I will leave it to others to test this theory with sophisticated statistics!
Spartalyticalon 28 Oct 2008 at 7:09 pm 2I won’t be at the Wisconsin game Saturday, but I may be at the Green/White scrimmage.
Benon 28 Oct 2008 at 7:42 pm 3I might be at the G/W game. Gotta see if the Mrs. wants to stay in Michigan for the night after the game . . .
spartanproduceron 30 Oct 2008 at 10:27 pm 4I will be at the Green and White game (unless my wife’s sore back hurts too much for two sporting events, but hey I’m grooming her to be a tough Spartan fan!!) so I should be able to contribute something this weekend